According to Android Police, gel is the short version of Google Experience Launcher, and the fact that its name is com.google.android.gel instead of com.android.gel seems to suggest that the launcher will be available in the Google Play Store – the same Android World pointed out a few days ago the same thing about the name of various Google apps which will apparently have a .google in their name, indicating a possibility that those apps will be available as independent downloads from the Play Store.

Finally, Android Police points out to KitKat’s motto – “to make an amazing Android experience available for everybody” (see top image) – which seems to suggest that with KitKat, Google may want to offer users that won’t immediately have access to the latest OS update some of the latest versions.

Maybe Google’s way of doing things is to simply offer users the possibility to download some of the Android 4.4 default app as independent Google Play apps that would work with older Android versions – but we’re just speculating at this point.

That would be one way to get a “Google Experience” handset, and that’s why getting a new launcher, one that has its own branding (previous launchers didn’t have their own names), would make sense.